Selecting Installation Packages

The next major portion of the installation process requires that you select the installation packages that will be installed on the server. You can select from a number of packages and these will depend on the purpose that the Red Hat server will fulfill on the network. These packages not only include services such as News server (NNTP) or Windows File Server (using Samba), but also allows you to select different GUI interfaces for your Linux installation.

GUIs such as GNOME and KDE provide you with a "Windows-like" environment, which makes it easier to access various Linux tools and configure the system (although some configuration will still take place at the command prompt, which is fairly standard for Linux). If you choose to use GNOME or KDE, this will require that you have a VGA graphics card that can handle at least 256 colors and a monitor that can display the card's output. Systems configured with a SVGA video card will provide you with the best possible output for displaying the Linux GUIs.

After selecting the packages you wish to install on the Linux server, you can proceed with the balance of the installation. The package installations may take some time, especially if you chose to provide a number of different services on the server.

After the files have been copied to your computer, you will be given the option of creating a boot disk for the system. The installation process will conclude with the configuration of your GUIs (such as GNOME or KDE), which will include the identification of your graphics card and your monitor.

Note

GNOME stands for GNU Network Object Model Environment. GNOME is a freeware GUI interface that was created as part of the GNU project (which has led to the creation of a lot of the software that runs on the Linux platform). KDE or K Desktop Environment is also an open source product.